For those in North Carolina, on September 13 Dance Gumbo is having a dance party with the great cajun group Beausoleil. The show starts at 8:30, but if you need to learn how to dance come early at 7:30 and be schooled in the art. Its at the ArtsCenter in Carborro and should be a great time. For tickets and more information contact Jack Wolf at jackwolf at yahoo.com or go to the ArtsCenter website.

This track comes to us from Dallas and is another great example of party Texas blues. Will Day sings lead here and backed by a great and sadly undocumented band. The song is about Central Avenue a rough and tumble street and Dallas, much like Beale St. in Memphis or the Deep Morgan area of St. Louis. It’s a great boastful party side that will get dancing like an ipod ad.

On Saturday evenings KSVY out of the Sonoma Valley as a radio program called Rootsock & Vine that features a great mix of pre-war blues and other blues based music. It streams live from 5-7 pm (PST) and is worth checking out, and then bugging the dee jay to post his playlists.

I know that I always say this, but I mean it every time. Edna Winston should of been huge. Her voice is a wonderful blend of rough and dirty blues and polished New York pop jazz singing. Think Lil’ Johnson meets Bertha Chippie Hill. She’s backed on her few sides by a wonderful band including Buddy Christian on banjo and the wonderful Mike Jackson on piano, sure she’s not as polished as a lot of the women who because the classic blues singers, but she has a spark and unique phrasing that I just love. Alas.

I’ve been so wrapped up in Spike Lee’s Katrina Documentary, that I forgot that PBS’ had an hour long documentary about Alan Lomax as part of their POV series premiere last night. Did anyone catch it? Hopefully my local PBS station will be replaying this soon, or a quick turnaround to dvd.

Not to point any fingers at those in governmental positions who dealt with the Katrina disaster, but Kansas Joe and Memphis predicted the Levee’s breaking way back in 1929 (the basis of this song is of the “Great Mississippi Flood of 1927“). Kansas Joe, Minnie’s husband sings lead on this track which is a shame because Minnie has that great voice, but Joe is perfectly fine and the track features Minnie’s wonderful guitar work. To show how out of touch I am with blues rock, I didn’t know until today that Led Zep covered this song, though I can’t imagine it being very good. Though I could be wrong about that.Kansas Joe and Memphis Minnie – When The Levee Breaks (1929)

The Pussycat Dolls don’t have anything on Texas Alexander. Alexander was one of the first Texas blues singers, and along with Blind Lemon Jefferson and Blind Willie Johnson really created an unique Texas blues sound, one that’s different from other forms of country blues. This track was recorded in 1928 and I believe it has Lonnie Johnson on guitar and of course Alexander’s wonderful sleepy blues voice that lulls me in and out of this summer day.

My car’s alternator died last night. The place I took my car to doesn’t really seem to be in much of a hurry to jump on this project, which I mean would be pretty helpful if they would at least take a gander at the issue and give me a call back.

To lighten my mood, I listened to Billy Mitchell all morning. Mitchell recorded half a dozen tracks in 1936 in his drunken, rambling blues piano style that apparently didn’t endear him to blues listeners as he never recorded any other tracks. This songs are really fun, and don’t stray too much in cheesy talking piano bar blues material.

This is track is a suggestion/request from Megan of the Roulette Sisters, I hadn’t heard of Mississippi Matilda before she suggested and now I don’t know how I lived so long without her. Matilda was married to the wonderful guitar player Sonny Boy Nelson (Eugene Powell) who backed her this song, Hard Workin’ Woman, which details her job has a house worker. I can imagine that must of been one happy baby, to have Matilda sing to her in the most perfect, almost high lonesome voice that rivals Texas Gladden for sheer beauty.

The request part is if any one has a transcription of the lyrics. It doesn’t seem too hard, I might give it a go this week.

If you have some extra money laying around in a shoebox somewhere, you might want to check out this highly dubious auction for Robert Johnson’s guitar. In more worthwhile news, Paramount GIG is raising money for a Paramount Records Walk-Of-Fame as well as other preservation works of blues culture in Grafton, WI.

Jaybird Coleman was born in Alabama as Burl C. Coleman, Jaybird was a nickname he would pick up in the military. He was a popular harmonica player and blues singer who toured around Alabama through out the 1920s, both solo and as part of various jug bands. He made his first recordings in 1927, and would only record one other time in 1930 as part of the Birmingham Jug Band. This track is a solo number from 1927 and is quite good and so much better than almost all of the harmonica/vox songs that from the pre-war and post-war eras.